An Ancient Prenup for a Jewish Soldier in the Persian Army

At the Pushkin Museum in Moscow there is a large collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including several from the isle of Elephantine in the Upper Nile, which from the 7th to the 5th centuries BCE was home to a Persian garrison defending the southern frontier of the empire. A sizeable number of Jewish soldiers of the shah were stationed there, along with their families. Matti Friedman describes a prenuptial agreement in the museum’s collections, not so different from a Jewish k’tubah or marriage contract, found on Elephantine and drawn up between a Jewish Temple employee and his Egyptian wife. (Video, nine minutes.)